SaigonNezumi.com

If you are Viet Kieu (Abroad Vietnamese) and interested in getting a 5 year visa exemption, Tung (Saigon in a Cup) gives a very detailed descriptions on how you can obtain this.  This 5 year visa exemption also applies to those who are married to Vietnamese nationals.

Visit How to get a 5 year visa exemption for more information.

Having this type of visa means you will have to leave Vietnam every three months (border run to Moc Bai) but I heard some Viet Kieu are able to renew it in Saigon for a “fee”.

For the rest of us, once you have renewed your 3 month visas three times (for 9 months), you will have to leave Vietnam to renew your visa.  The easiest is getting a “letter of invitation” from you company or school, especially for Americans.  The other option is to go through the tedious work permit process which, once approved, allows you to obtain a 2-3 year temporary resident card.

The choice is yours…

Tomorrow is the last day of Tet, finally.  This has actually been one long boring Tet for me.  Normally I would spend some time out of the city but this year I just felt like hanging out at home.  My alleyway, though quite loud on Day 2 of Tet, has been relatively quiet since with the exception of one yelling kid screaming.

I did get some things accomplished.  I finally finished Traders Guns & Money.  Clifton let me borrow his book first but I was a slow reader so I had to borrow a copy later from another friend.  It was a great book but by the time I got to the end, I was glad to have finished it.  Still, I will get a copy a do a more thorough reading next time.

I met another fellow Linux geek on Day 1 of Tet named Pratik.  He has his own blog titled BirdBrain.  I also met Tung, another new Saigon blogger who authors Saigon in a Cup at the same meeting with Pratik.

Though tomorrow is Day 5 of Tet, I must work and update a website for Operation Reunite.  They will have an interview with CNN on Friday and this could be an official launch of the site.  I am using WordPress with the site and unfortunately a couple plugins broke some features that I will have to manually add such as the Facebook Add button.

By Friday, many people will start to return to Saigon for day 1 of their workday.  The rest will return Sunday night.  Saigon should still be a quiet city until then.  Just need to remind myself not to go out Sunday afternoon.

It has been nearly 4 months since I last updated my list of Bloggers in Vietnam.

Here is another one to add called Saigon in a Cup by Tung from the US.  Give it a read.

Please welcome Tung to the Saigon blogosphere!

Just added a new blog to my Vietnam Blogger list.  The Expat Experience is a blog written by Australian blogger, Cara, focusing on her life in Saigon.  It is quite interesting and I recommend adding her to your RSS feeds.

The Expat Experience -> http://theexpatexperience.blogspot.com/

I started posting blog entries on my Yahoo 360 account back in August 20, 2006.  My Vietnamese Sociology students from the Center for International Education and other university students at SaigonTech wanted me to post more on Yahoo 360 since they were all active there.  I remember being very active there for a couple of years.   I even met some friends from there as well and made some good contacts.

Sadly, Yahoo 360 will be shutdown.  It is still a surprise to many young Vietnamese bloggers who have used Yahoo 360 religiously for the last 3-4 years.  My students still use it.  They are the ardent ones who will use it until the end which should come soon.

I have been lucky that I started SaigonNezumi.com before I created my Yahoo 360 accounts.  I will not be affected much by the shutdown.  Many of my 360 Friends have already added me to my Facebook account.

I do feel sorry for the many young 360 bloggers who have no place to move their blog entries too.  I created a blog forum for my students but it is no way ready to handle anymore than 200 users.  Not yet at least.

Yahoo 360 Plus does not seem a popular option as well.   I posted this entry nearly a year ago:

The negative, since Yahoo 360plus will not be connected to the universal profile with other Yahoo products, could be the death blow to Yahoo 360 in Vietnam. The strength of Yahoo 360 is that it enabled Vietnamese bloggers to connect with other Yahoo 360 users around the world. If Yahoo 360plus just focuses on the Vietnamese market, many 360 users could move over to Facebook which is rapidly becoming popular among students and friends.

Unfortunately for you English speakers, Yahoo 360plus is only available in the Vietnamese language.

This is exactly what is happening.  I am seeing many of the Vietnamese bloggers who write English move over to Facebook.  They are very active as well.  That includes my high school ICT students and former university students.  I expect the same for other Yahoo 360 English speaking Vietnamese users as well.

Will they continue to blog?  It is hard to say.  I hate to say it, you can do quite a bit with Facebook now.  If a developer adds a small blogging application to Facebook  (I am not sure if one is there), that could be make Facebook a perfect replacement for Yahoo 360.

I am sure the Young Vietnamese IT geeks will have their opinions on this one.

Below is my last Yahoo 360 post:

It seems that Yahoo 360 will end soon. If you want to keep in contact with me, please visit the following sites:

1. SaigonNezumi.com (my blog) -> http://www.saigonnezumi.com

2. Facebook -> http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=678700482

3. Twitter -> http://twitter.com/saigonnezumi

If you need help finding a new blog site, please email me at: http://www.saigonnezumi.com/aboutkevinmillerjr/contact-kevin-miller-jr/ and I will help you find a new place to blog at.

Thank you for being my Yahoo 360 Friends. I hope to see you at another forum.

Kevin Miller, Jr. saigonnezumi

Farewell Yahoo 360!